Allen Memorial Art Museum
Enjoy the intimate setting of the Allen. Discover gems among the permanent collection of more than 15,000 works spanning many cultures and time periods.
Sunday: 1-5 p.m.
Closed Mondays and major holidays
Exhibitions
Focus: Power, Agency, and Objectivity in Early Photography
Through December 23, 2021
British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) once asked: “What is focus, and who has the right to say what focus is the legitimate focus?” Cameron’s question lies at the heart of this exhibition, which traces the early history of photography while probing how myths surrounding the perceived objectivity of this new medium conceal the power dynamics inherent in who photographs, what is photographed, and how photographs are viewed and understood.
Green Japan: Images of Sustainable Living in Ukiyo-e Prints
Through December 23, 2021
As Oberlin College and Conservatory approaches the ambitious goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2025, the most visible ways it has sought to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are high-tech: solar panel fields, geothermal wells, and green buildings, to name a few. But equally important are the low-tech efforts to encourage changes in behavior and create a robust culture of sustainability to forestall the growing climate crisis.
Shared Art
Through January 16, 2022
LaToya Ruby Frazier uses photographs to narrate her life. She turns to those closest to her—herself, her mother, her grandmother—to tell a larger story of Rust Belt America. In Frazier’s work, a person’s lived experience and the history of a place are closely intertwined.
Form and Emptiness: Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Japanese Ceramics
Through January 23, 2022
We are now in a second golden age of Japanese ceramics, with a level of creativity and technical excellence not seen since the Momoyama Period in the late 16th century.
New Acquisitions and Old Friends
Through January 30, 2022
This exhibition brings together a large number of works new to the museum—many on view for the first time—alongside others that have been visitor favorites for decades. Ranging in date from 1948 to 2020, they represent a striking diversity of artistic backgrounds, techniques, and approaches.
DIS/POSSESSION
Through August 7, 2022
Many museums have begun to write and display statements that acknowledge the indigenous communities past and present that have lived on and stewarded the natural resources of land now occupied by the institution.
Mobility and Exchange, 1600-1800
Through August 14, 2022
The museum’s gallery of 17th- and 18th-century European art has been reimagined to reveal global stories of encounter and exchange. Central to the new installation is a recent addition to the AMAM collection: a portrait of the Ethiopian traveler Zaga Christ by the Italian artist Giovanna Garzoni.
Forms Larger and Bolder: Eva Hesse Drawings
February 22 through June 5, 2022
German-born American artist Eva Hesse (1936-70) produced a prodigious body of work that collapsed disciplinary boundaries and forged innovative approaches to materials, forms, and processes. This exhibition illustrates the important role that drawing played throughout Hesse’s career.